James Evans, Author at The Ring Finders | Page 2 of 7

Bullet casings found in park for Mount Prospect Police Department in Illinois

  • from Las Vegas (Nevada, United States)
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Received a call form an officer yesterday who had used the Ringfinders in the past to find a ring in Michigan for a relative. He quickly explained that I was not in any trouble. (That’s a relief). He explained that they could use some help in locating some bullet casings for a suspected shooting in a local park. He asked me if this something a ringfinder could do. I said ABSOLUTELY!! He asked me how much it would cost. I said that was up to them. I’m a big believer in helping the Police if they need me.

I met the officer and his partner at the park. They said if I found any casings they would put up some tape to protect the area. I believe they were just following up on some complaint and were unsure if there was any shooting.

I brought extra metal detectors and they brought a detector form the police station. Neither officers knew how to use their machine, so I gave them some tips. They brought a bag of bullet casings. They had casings from a 22 all the way up to a 45, since we didn’t know what we were looking for. So we tested the machines on all of the bullet casings to get a range of what we were looking for.

I was using my XP Deus. I notched out the numbers that were not in the range of the casings. Since it was a surface find, I turned down my audio to 1 so that I could tell by the sound if it was close to the surface. I new from the tests that 9mm would fall in the 60’s. I was hunting in 12 kHz.

Based on the witnesses, the officers estimated where the event happened. I found my first casing in 5 minutes.

Up came the tape! They taped a large area but I continued to hunt in the area of my first find. Total casings found 8. They were scattered along an area within 10 feet of the sidewalk. Apparently there was a gunfight.

It was my pleasure to help these officers. 

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Lost in Snow a 22K Yellow Gold Recovered in Schaumburg, Illinois.

  • from Las Vegas (Nevada, United States)
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The first snow of the season, although a bit early, creates another opportunity to help someone. Received a call that his wife had lost her 22K gold wedding band while walking in the first snow of the season. Even though it was late afternoon, they wanted me to come. I figured maybe 2 hours before sunset, so I was a little concerned.

I arrives at 3:58 and left at 4:10. Not a bad hunt! The husband had a similar ring, so I was able to get a reading. Her name was in raised letters, so I will not show that. I used my AT Gold detector with a large coil. As you can see this was not a small thin ring!! Usually in my experience, gold rings ring up in the 44-55 range. This ring, because of the 22K, rang up in the 69-75 range. Just a note for AT Gold users.

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Diamond Ring found in Corn Box at the Goebberts Farm & Garden Center in South Barrington, IL

  • from Las Vegas (Nevada, United States)
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So this is my Second call out to a corn pit this year. This was at the Goebberts Farm in South Barrington, Illinois. The owner could not have been more accommodating.

A woman had been playing with her child and fell. The ring came off as she was trying to get up. I can tell you, I fell myself on several occasions during the hunt. I had to crawl over to the pole just to get up! These corn pits are the PITS!!

She had lost it on Sunday and I wasn’t able to hunt until Thursday. The ring sank to the bottom of the pit and I was lucky to recover it. I used my box like device to dig down toward the bottom. I used 2 detectors, a hand help pinpointer and a hand held plastic sand scoop to recover the ring. I am considering using a PI Machine to locate items that may be at the bottom of the corn kernels. She was embarrassed about losing it, so I will not post her photo.

I’m beginning to have a Love Hate relationship with Corn Pits!!

LOVE the money HATE the labor.

Most corn pits are open til October 31st, so maybe more searches will be forthcoming.

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2 rings found in corn pit in Tinley Park, Illinois.

  • from Las Vegas (Nevada, United States)
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Received a call from a man who had lost his 14K wedding band while playing in a corn pit. He had me come out to look for it. Corn pits, for those who don’t know, is a structure, that is filled with corn kernels that people play in. They generally are about 2 feet deep and are very hard to walk in AND very difficult to hunt. As you dig for the lost item, the corn fills in the hole. Its a tough workout!! I devised a box to help prevent that filling in. I was able to find His ring in about 10 minutes. Thats because he called me soon after he lost it. The longer you wait, the deeper it goes and the harder it is to find.

Once I found his ring, the manager of the Odyssey Fun Farm, told me that a woman had also lost her Diamond wedding band the same morning. So I searched for that ring too. I found it within 30 minutes. The manager called the woman’s husband, and he came out with his daughter to retrieve it.

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Ruby Stud Earring and Diamond Stud Earring Both recovered and returned

  • from Las Vegas (Nevada, United States)
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Received an email from a student who had lost 1 ruby stud earring and 1 diamond stud earring on campus while sitting at a picnic table. The wind came up and these two earrings fell through the holes in the table. These earrings were from her mother and had a lot of sentimental value. I asked her to send me a photo next to a coin so I could see the size of them. She did have the matching earrings. The Ruby earring was 14K but as you can see very small. The Diamond stud was bigger in white gold. Both these earrings were in the grass.

I asked her to put each earring in a separate ziplock bag which I provided. I brought my XP Deus with the HF elliptical coil. Since the earrings were small, I decided to hunt in goldfield program with the IAR at 5 so I would not hear Iron. I put both bags in the grass. I used the Grab Ground Balance, I bumped the kHz as high as I could. Received readings from both earrings. At the Lower kHz I got nothing. I also checked my XP Pinpointer with sensitivity bumped to 50 to see if the small ruby earring would even register.

In a few swings I got the diamond stud. Knowing that the ruby had to be close I found that shortly. I didn’t use the pinpointed but did verify that it would detect them. I had to be very close to them to register.

Another successful recovery. These earrings would not even register on the CTX 3030.

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Highland Park Beach Ring found in water

  • from Las Vegas (Nevada, United States)
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Received an email at 1:54 AM to look for a gold enameled wedding ring. It came off in the water, the sand or by a bench. The only thing certain was that it was gone. The couple were visiting from Germany and would be leaving Chicago in about5 days. She had put on suntan lotion and the ring came off at the beach. They knew the different areas that they had been sitting. They had moved to different locations at the beach. She had gone back and forth into the water. She said that she had not gone into deep water. So I first started in the sand where they had first been situated. Nothing! Since the beach had small rocks in some areas, I thought that had the ring fallen off there it would be visible. The water was calm and I thought that the water was the most likely spot. I searched the water chest high. I had wadders and she said it was not deep. Nothing! I worked my way toward shore where there were lost of small rocks. In about two feet of water, in the rocky section I got a hard hit with my CTX. I could look down and saw nothing. I used my handheld waterproof pinpointer to find the area. still didn’t see anything. Pushed some of the rocks away with the pinpointer and there was the ring!! Its always great to make people happy.

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Oak Street Beach Chicago Newly Weds lost ring Found

  • from Las Vegas (Nevada, United States)
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Received a call at about 6:30 from a young man seeking help. The couple had been married only a month and were at Oak Street beach with a group of friends. She had placed the ring on her towel for safe keeping. Needless to say it fell into the sand. There were a number of people helping look. All digging in the sand. When He called me I told him to stop the digging. The ring could sink deeper. I arrived and found her ring in about 30 seconds!! All the guests and surrounding people came over and were shocked that I was able to find it.

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The BIGGEST Diamond Ring I have ever found and the Hardest Hunt. 3 days in Tall grass

  • from Las Vegas (Nevada, United States)
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Received a call at about 7:00PM to look for a 18K diamond ring that was lost throwing a small stick. They knew exactly where in their back yard!! (In the grass) They were so emotional about it, and it sounded like a easy hunt, I went out immediately. I arrived before nightfall. A couple of things that I had not been told about. Grass was 3 to 4 feet tall, near a retention pond, and it included cattails!! Needless to say I did not find it.

I returned the next morning with a scythe (Yes I know how to use it! I’m OLD and cut grass with one along the highway for the county when I was a kid) a rake, and both my CTX and XPDeus detectors and all my coils. I cut some of the grass and started to search. After several hours of hard labor, I asked them to rent a industrial weedwacker. I cut more grass all the way to the retention pond and searched. 7 hours later…Nothing!

Returned the next day with Ron Shore another Ringfinder. I knew the ring was there and was very frustrated, but stubborn. We hunted for about 4 hours. Nothing. Both becoming frustrated. This seemed like an easy hunt. So I decided to start from scratch. I ran a gridline starting at the waters edge and worked my way back to where she had been standing. I checked out EVERY signal with my handheld pinpointer. Not 5 feet from where she was standing I found the ring. I marked the spot and told the woman that we decided to quit hunting since Ron and I were exhausted. I told her I had marked a spot that I had received a signal but I was too tired to look and would she check it out.. BINGO!!!!

Here is what was interesting and a lesson I learned. Ron was using the the AT Gold with a nell coil and I was using my CTX with my 17 Inch coil for coverage. Since I knew it was a very Large 18K ring ( Bigger than a mens College ring) I assumed the signal would BLAST us. NO way. The signal I got didn’t lock on and jumped around from 34 to 38 no solid red. Ron had the same issue. He said he would never have dug that signal. Perhaps the unique shape of the ring with different layers created the issue.

The lesson is to start at about 5 feet BEHIND the point of standing and grid Forward. Rings that are lost while throwing sticks generally are about 10 feet from the starting point. Rings are generally NOT where they think.

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Lost Ruby and Diamond Sentimental Engagement ring found at Loyola Beach in chicago

  • from Las Vegas (Nevada, United States)
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Received a call from a young man who was helping an elderly women. The gentleman was sitting on a bench at Loyola Beach with his girlfriend when he observed an elderly women frantically searching on her hands and knees for her sentimental engagement ring in the sand. It was yellow gold with two Diamonds and a Ruby. He helped her by marking the spot with some small stones and a buried t shirt. He went online with his phone and found the Ringfinders website and my name. The woman does not own a cell phone. He called me and explained the situation. This call was received in the late afternoon today. I knew that if I didn’t come out right away, the stones and marker would probably be gone in the morning because of the raking machines they use every morning on the beaches. He gave me the woman’s landline number and we met at the beach. The marker was still intact. In less than 30 seconds, with just 1 swipe of the coil, I found the ring less than a foot from the marker. It came up as 12/05 on my CTX 3030. The woman was in shock that I was able to find it. She had already given up any hope of finding it. People nearby saw that I had found it and came running over in disbelief. Another GREAT DAY to be a RINGFINDER!! I couldn’t have been happier for her so I had my picture taken with her.

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Lost engagement ring throwing frisbee in Lincoln Park, Chicago.

  • from Las Vegas (Nevada, United States)
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The Joys of summer!! Received a call to look in Lincoln Park in Chicago for an engagement ring. The Diamond has been passed down for several generations. They didn’t want to tell the parents they had lost the ring. This newly engaged couple even bought a metal detector from Menards. It drove them nuts!! She lost it throwing a frisbee on a wonderful cool summer day. Her friends along with dogs searched frantically to no avail. The search area was fairly extensive. They had already searched for hours. In speaking with the client, I explained I would search for 3 hours for the showup fee. He suggested that it might take longer. I got the impression that they wanted me to hunt until it was found!!

I arrived with two detectors, my CTX 3030 and my XP Deus. I set up a very specific program for white gold on the CTX. I discriminated out all silver and high targets and made a very narrow pattern. I adjusted the gain so he could tell if it was a surface find. I trained the client on how to swing the coil, showed him exactly where the ring should come up on the screen, told him to look for shallow signals, and gave him a pinpointed.

In the meantime, I lay out gridlines as I was trained to do by archeologist. If I was going to be there until I was successful, I needed to make sure I hunted the area only once. So off I went. Meantime I suggested to the client that they hunt away from my grid patterns.

Guess who found the ring!!

I heard a sound of excitement turned around and they were holding the ring in disbelief. She was almost hyperventilating!!

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